Current Events

I don’t usually share my opinions about politics on a public
forum. I try to stay out of it as much
as I can because I believe the message of the Gospel is far more important and
worthy of discussion. However, I seem to
be ok talking about college football way more than it should be talked about,
so I don’t think it’s terrible to give my 2-cents every now and then about
politics.

Recently, the protests across the nation have intrigued
me. It was all started by a group called
“Occupy Wall Street” and they have a website you can go to if you want to find
out more about who they are and what their beef is. But this group is growing very rapidly and
more and more groups are popping up across the nation. I’ve even heard that a similar protest has
popped up in my home town of Columbus, OH.

I’ve looked into this group a little bit to see exactly what
it is that they are protesting. What I’ve
found is that they are basically protesting against big corporations who think
they can rule over our country and government at the expense of the
people. They are sick and tired of the
decisions our government has made over the past several decades and they seem
to be protesting our entire system of capitalism.

Fox News and other conservative publications are tossing
this group out as a bunch of pot smoking hippies. But that is just fueling the fire for these hippies
because it looks like Fox News and the entire right wing is just backing the
big corporations… which proves to them that the big corporations are behind the
scenes controlling the media (and everything else).

This whole thing is a mess and I believe it’s going to get
worse before it gets better. The problem
is that both sides are entrenched so deeply that they won’t budge for
anything. Each side believes that they
are right and the other side is wrong, and so neither side will listen to the
other. And every time one side says or
does something, it just proves to the other side that they are that much more
wrong.

Conservatives are painted as being corrupted by money and
having no heart for the poor and marginalized.
Liberals are painted as being morally corrupted and having no respect
for justice.

And then there are people like me. We are so disgusted by it all that we just
want to pull away, dive into pessimism, and believe that all sides are totally
messed up. We don’t trust anybody when
it comes to government or politics. We
see through the talking points of both sides and we are just sick of it. We value honesty but that word does not exist
in our media or in our politics or in our corporations.

I actually think that these protestors are on to
something. I don’t think capitalism is
the answer. Capitalism is not scriptural
at all. I believe we are reaping what we
have sown for the past fifty years. The
rich control way too much and the poor are mistreated way too much. Corporations have worked their way into our
legal system and into our governments so much that they are getting away with
almost anything they want.

But it’s not just corporations and capitalism that have
screwed up our society. The moral
failure of our culture is just as guilty.
When we can’t tell right from wrong or when we teach our children to
believe that truth is relative, we can’t expect to succeed. The fact that people clap on national tv when
they hear that Mexico City is offering a 2-year marriage agreement is sad. The fact that the majority of people in
America admit to lying on their resume is sad.
The fact that saving yourself for marriage is considered weird is a sad,
sad reality of our culture.

Republicans and Democrats are both wrong. But they are also both right. Republicans need to stop fighting harder for
the rich than they do for the poor. That
is anti-Christ! Democrats need to stop
ignoring moral boundaries as if they serve no purpose. That is anti-Christ! Corporations need to be shut down if they get
to a point where they are harming the people more than they are helping the
people. And 24-hour news companies
should be shut down immediately because they are more concerned with
entertainment and making money than they are with helping America.

The reality is that we need both conservatives and liberals in this country. Looking out for the poor is considered pure religion in the Bible... (orphans and widows). Being rich is considered one of the best ways to sure up your ticket to hell according to Jesus. But Jesus also says, "If you love me, you will obey my commands." We need to hold our public servants, our corporations, and our people accountable both morally and socially. Social justice is considered moral justice to Jesus. He doesn't allow for one or the other. Neither should we.